THREE by TED DEKKER PODCAST
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Okay, I’ll admit it. I finished this story the day before yesterday, and I
can’t get it off of my mind. If anybody has read this book, will they
please post comments to this blog? I want to discuss this book with
somebody so bad that it aches. You know what I mean? I wish I was still
in a book club and this was the pick of the month!
MAJOR SPOILER! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
This book had a surprise ending, an ending that I’m still trying to
grasp and make sense of. Kevin, a divinity school student has suddenly
been plagued by disturbing phone calls by a man named Slater. Slater
asks a riddle, giving Kevin an amount of time to respond. If he doesn’t
respond, Slater retaliates by setting off a bomb. Slater accomplishes
his bomb threats in the book, and when the FBI gets involved, things get
pretty heated since Slater does not want cops involved with his “game”
with Kevin.
Jennifer, an FBI agent, is attracted to Kevin. She finds his childlike
curiosity, and his quiet nature to be appealing.
As Jennifer works on the case, she encourages Kevin to try and uncover the
real identity of Slater. Slater says he’ll stop his threats if Kevin
will confess his sin. Kevin assumes Slater is a boy he knew many years
ago, whom he’d left in an abandoned building to die. Kevin assumes
Slater is back to get revenge on him since he tried to “kill” him by
leaving him in the building with no means of escape. Kevin did this act
only to save his best and only friend Samantha(Sam). Sam also comes to
Kevin’s rescue when he contacts her, telling of how his car exploded.
Sam and Kevin have deep feelings for one another, but they never
pursued a relationship because they don’t want to mess up their
friendship by having a romance.
After many twists and turns, threats by Slater, and probing by Jennifer
and Samantha, it’s discovered, over a four-day period of time(and a
little over four hundred pages) that Kevin, Slater, and Samantha are all
one person! Kevin has multiple personalities and he assumes that Slater
and Samantha are people he’s known from his past, but they actually
don’t exist.
I keep thinking about this book because I’m trying to piece together
how plausible it was to have such extended scenes and conversations
between Sam and Kevin and Kevin and Slater. It’s hard for me to picture
this, however, I guess, once the truth has been revealed, the reader
would just need to assume that all of the details of the events happened in
Kevin’s head. I know this type of mental disorder does indeed exist, and it’s hard for me to imagine seeing people, having conversations with them for extended periods of time, and they’re really not there. I guess it’s kind of like when you are dreaming, it seems real, but you wake up and know it’s a dream. With this type of mental disorder, I’d think it would be like you were dreaming, except it happens when you are awake, and you are not aware that the people you are talking to are not real?
This story reminded me of a Sidney Sheldon title I read years ago
called Tell Me Your Dreams. In Sheldon’s book it was a woman who was the main character, and she had two other personalities. There is a string of murders involved in this book. It’s hard for me to remember all of the details of this book clearly since I read it several years ago.
If anybody reading this has read Thr3e, feel free to post your comments.
I read it over a year ago and enjoyed it. I wish I could remember the details better, now. We’ve moved across country, close to our kids, and our daughter has just had a baby, just a few of life’s little distracting details. When I read the first page, I was hooked. After a while, I began to suspect who Slater was, but I was totally surprised about the woman. I did see a movie where a man was searching for someone he had known, and you finally learn he, himself, was murdering all these people, that he himself was the man he was seeking. That he had sold his soul…. Creepiest movie I ever saw.
I’ve read most of Dekker’s books, liked _Blessed Child_ best of all of them.
I read Thr3e a while ago and loved it. Totally surprised me with the Sam twist! I had to go back and check on all the little details and make sure everything checked out. For the most part it did and what few holes I found (like why in the world wasn’t the back door to Kevin’s apartment guarded?) I was able to forgive because of the fun roller coaster ride Dekker took me on!
Cecelia, sounds like you had the same raection I did. LOL! The book blew me away. For days I kept thinking about it, reconciling the three in one twist. Great book!
As incredible a book as it is to read the first time, I think it’s even better the second time because you read each scene differently! And they creep you out even more–which I didn’t think was possible. I so love this book. The movie version is coming out in January 07, I hear. I hope it lives up to the book.
It’s nuts, but so is just about everything Ted Dekker writes, which is why I think he’s so popular. Gotta have imagination in this biz and he’s got bunches!
I just finished this book and loved it. But what I kept thinking about when I finished it was not the mental disorder part but the three natures of man. The evil, the good and the one I am.
I love how Dekker makes me see things so differently, he’s genius! You know, inside of me there’s a battle going on, the good I want to do and the evil that wants to be petted. It’s the war of my flesh and I think we all have this battle, some struggle more than others.